Collector guides

Eleven questions collectors actually ask, answered from four decades of buying, selling and authenticating entertainment autographs. No prices, no scare tactics, and nothing here collects your details.

§ —11 guides

01How Much Is My Autograph Worth?ValueThe honest answer is a range, and four things set it: whose hand it is, what it is signed on, what condition it survived in, and what you can prove about where it came from. Here is how that range is arrived at, and why the number you are quoted to buy is not the number you are paid to sell.Read
02How to Tell If an Autograph Is RealAuthenticationMost fakes are not clever. They are preprints, secretarials, autopens and copies of copies, and each of those has a tell you can find yourself with good light and a magnifier. Here is the order to check them in, and the point at which you should stop guessing.Read
03Where Can I Sell My Autograph Collection?SellingThere are four routes out of a collection and they pay differently, take different amounts of time, and carry different amounts of risk. The right one depends less on what you own than on how much of the work you want to do and how quickly you want to be finished.Read
04Where Can I Get an Autograph Authenticated?AuthenticationThere are four kinds of people who will give you an opinion on a signature, and they are not interchangeable. Knowing what each one is actually selling — and what their verdict is worth if it is ever challenged — is most of the decision.Read
05What Makes an Autograph Valuable?ValueFame is the input collectors overrate most. Scarcity, format, condition, provenance and demand do the real work, and they interact — which is why one signature from a household name is worth a fortune and the next one, from the same hand, is worth very little.Read
06Celebrity Autographs: A Beginner’s Guide to CollectingCollectingA first collection is mostly a series of decisions: what to collect, what format to collect it in, who to buy from, and what to do with it once it arrives. Get those four right and the rest of the hobby is enjoyable rather than expensive.Read
07How to Buy Authentic Autographs Online Without Getting BurnedBuyingAlmost every forged autograph in circulation is sold online, because that is where the buyers are and where the seller can be anonymous. The defence is not a better eye for signatures. It is a better eye for sellers.Read
08Are Autograph Certificates of Authenticity Worth Anything?AuthenticationA certificate is not evidence that a signature is genuine. It is evidence that somebody said so. Everything depends on who that somebody is, what they examined, and what happens if they turn out to be wrong.Read
09The Most Valuable Types of Movie and TV AutographsValueNaming individual signers dates badly and tells you nothing transferable. The categories do not date: the same handful of types have sat at the top of this market for decades, and they will still be there when today’s names have moved around.Read
10How to Store and Protect an Autograph CollectionCareLight, heat, damp and the wrong plastic destroy more value in this hobby than forgers do, and unlike a forgery the damage cannot be undone. Everything that follows is cheap, and all of it is permanent if you skip it.Read
11Where to Buy Authentic Autographs and Signed Memorabilia SafelyBuyingDealers, auction houses and marketplaces are not three levels of safety. They are three ways of deciding who answers for a signature, and on two of them the answer may be nobody. Here is how to tell, venue by venue, before the money moves.Read

Every guide ends in one action, and it is always the same three: buy from us, sell to us, or have a piece authenticated.

See where to buy

§ —From Piece of the Past

The memorabilia blog

Value

Sell Memorabilia at the Best Price: Top 3 Factors to Consider

What actually moves the number on a signed piece — and what collectors wrongly assume adds value.

Open

Selling

Where to Sell Memorabilia: The 3 Most Popular Options

Dealer, auction or marketplace — the trade-offs in speed, fees and final price, laid out plainly.

Open

Authentication

Real vs. Fake: 4 Red Flags to Watch Out For

The tells that come up again and again in forged entertainment autographs, from a forgeries columnist.

Open

Safe buying

Famous Autographs for Sale: Buying Tips for Newbies

How to buy your first signed piece online without funding a forger — questions to ask before you pay.

Open

Safe buying

Tips for Buying Legit Presidential Autographs

Secretarials, autopens and facsimiles: why presidential material fools more buyers than any other category.

Open

Collecting

4 Top-Selling Autographs from the Entertainment Industry

Which names hold demand in entertainment right now, and what that means for a collection you are building.

Open